Many rotary printing machines which accept printing plates of the bendable or flexible type are formed with grooves extending parallel to the axis of rotation of the plate cylinder in which the grooves include clamping or other attachment arrangements to attach the printing plates thereinto and retain them in position around the circumference of the cylinder.
Various attachment arrangements are described in the literature, for example German Patent Disclosure Document DE-OS No. 23 34 127; Published Patent Application DE-AS No. 26 20 427; Utility Model DE-GM No. 78 25 185. The attachment described in any one of the aforementioned publications includes a clamping device with a clamping spring and a clamping body and an additional separate tensioning element. The use of a separate tensioning element requires formation of the groove into which the plate is placed of sufficient size to accept the tensioning element, so that the overall groove will be relatively large. Additionally, the groove must be shaped precisely as required. Apparatus is needed to twist, turn, or clamp the tensioning element. Consequently, manufacture of such an attachment arrangement is comparatively expensive and requires substantial steps in machining and metal working. The solutions described in the publications DE-OS No. 23 34 127 and DE-GM No. 78 25 185 only permit placement of a printing plate in a single predetermined position on the plate cylinder due to the specific way the groove is constructed. Consequently, reversal of the printing plate and positioning of the plate in reverse direction on the printing cylinder is not possible with those arrangements.